April 8, 2015

Never Rile Up a Potential Rival

Here are two times where I inadvertently broke this rule and paid for it. In theory, a riled-up opponent should be emotional and thereby play poorly. In reality, at the higher levels in sports, when you rile up a player they just get more focused. Here are the two examples.

In the early 1990s I was chatting with a local player, and he asked me about my recent success against Dave Sakai. Now my lifetime won-loss record against Dave - Hall of Famer, former top five in the U.S., and 1979 Pan Am Team Member - is roughly 5-infinity. (We've played many, many times, dating back to the late 1970s.) It just so happens that three of those five wins had just come consecutively, and was what brought on the question of my recent success against him. I commented that I seemed to have a good style against Dave, since he couldn't stop my third-ball attack and I could rally with him on his serve. Well, the local player told Dave, and you know what happened. I played Dave in a tournament about a week or so later. I've never seen a more focused or determined player. Anyone who plays Dave knows he rarely makes mistakes, but this match I don't think he made any. Suffice to say, he returned my serves better and dominated the rallies on his serve. (Believe me, you don't want to rile up 68-year-old Dave even now, not unless you're over 2500. He's the reigning U.S. Open Over 65 Men's Singles Champion, as well as in Over 50 Doubles and Over 60 Men's Doubles [both with Dan Seemiller], Over 65 Men's Doubles [with Dell Sweeris], and Over 60 Mixed Doubles [with wife Donna Sakai].)

The other time was in the early 1980s, when I was approaching my peak. I had just played Pandit Dean, a two-winged looper rated about 2250, but he was too soft on his backhand, and so I was able to attack his backhand loop over and over with my forehand and win. I had to play him again in the very same tournament. Before the match someone asked me about Pandit, and I said, "I should beat him again. His backhand loop is too soft." Well, it turns out Pandit was sitting quietly right behind me and overheard. When we went out to play a little while later - and I had no clue he had overheard me - he came out ripping backhand loops all over the place, and soon I was reduced to blocking and waving at the ball, and lost. When we shook hands, he said, "Backhand too soft?" I later apologized to him, and complimented his backhand - but asked why he didn't play that way all the time? He said, "I didn't have incentive."

So my best advice is to let sleeping dogs lie. So, Dave and Pandit, I just want you to know how much I admire your brilliant table tennis games. (There, now I have a chance against them if we ever play again.)

Junior Star Allen Wang is Starting a School Club (Part 2)

Okay, people, let's get serious - he needs donations to buy tables for the school club he's starting. (And he's NOT from my club - he's up there in New Jersey, which is rumored to be somewhere up north of Maryland.) Currently he's at $620 of the $1600 needed. (And a big thanks to big donar Fadi Kaddoura.) I put this in my blog yesterday, and not nearly enough people donated. C'mon, you can afford $10 can't you? (Or more?) If you do, everyone will see your name in the donations listings and know that you are a good person! And if you're not in the listing, of course, that means you are a bad person. I plan to list the names of every human on earth who does not donate. You don't want to be on that list.

Amy Wang: Young Athlete Puts it All on the Table

Here's the article in the Philadelphia Enquirer.

Wait a minute, that's two consecutive articles on the brother-sister combo of Allen and Amy Wang! Well, I guess two Wangs make a right. (You can hunt me down and shoot me for that.) On a completely unrelated note, am I the only one who gets hungry whenever I see someone named Wang? Hasn't anyone else noticed that that it's just "gnaw" backwards?

Crystal Wang Featured on Sinovision TV

Here's the article and video (3:15) - alas, it's mostly in Chinese, but Crystal answers questions in English three times, at 0:49, 2:06, and 2:40.

And yeah, that's three straight Wang/Gnaw articles. (Crystal is from my club, no relation to Allen and Amy.)

3T Table Tennis Training

Here's a site with about a zillion training videos.

Ask the Coach

Episode #110 (19:46) - Are Choppers Making a Comeback? (and other segments)

Ma Long's Reverse Backhand Serve

Here's the video (22 sec, including close-up slow motion) of this very rare serve. Who else does it? Well . . . me!!! Here's a picture of me doing it back in the 1990s, in a hard bat match, though I used this serve occasionally with sponge as well. (I normally play with sponge.) So why don't more players use this serve? I can do it with varied spins, usually either side-topspin or side-backspin. I don't use it much as a coach, however, since few players use it, so my students won't be facing it - so instead I use more "normal" serves so they can practice against them.

Hitting/Practicing with Lower/Higher Rated Players

Here's an interesting article and discussion on this at the mytabletennis.net forum. (Here's a related short Tip I wrote back in 2011, Message to Lower-Ranked Players from Higher-Ranked Players.) 

Staying Sharp for the Aging

Here's an article in yesterday's Washington Post that talked about the benefits of sports like table tennis for the aging. It focused on fencing, but also wrote:

"In addition to fencing, sports that use what are called 'open motor skills' include basketball, hockey, football and table tennis." "Closed-skill sports, which include biking, bowling, golf and gymnastics, involve self-paced movements." "Last year, researchers in Taiwan conducted a study that looked at cognitive function in 60 participants whose average age was 69. … open-skill exercisers showed greater neural efficiency than the closed-skill exercisers."

College Table Tennis

The U.S. National College Championships are coming up, April 10-12, at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. Here are some articles.

11 Questions with Doru Gheorghe

Here's the interview with USATT's Chief Operating Officer, High Performance Director, and Women's Coach.

Kanak Jha Named ITTF Dream Building Ambassador for Junior Players

Here's the ITTF story. (I linked to this picture/poster a couple days ago.)

Pictures from Regional Hopes Camp in Atlanta

Here are the pictures from this past weekend.

Zhang Jike doing Multiball

Here's the video (51 sec).

Top Ten Shots at the Spanish Open

Here's the video (2:49).

Table Tennis on Box of Cereal/Curry

Here's the picture of Jun Mizutani (world #5, Japan #1) on a box of curry that was initially mistaken for a box of cereal. The question asked is, "When do you think this will ever happen in the US? A table tennis Ad on a cereal box, or even better a table tennis player's pic on a cereal box!" The answer is - in 1936, and again in 2012. Here's USATT Hall of Famer George Hendry on the Wheaties box in 1936, and here's 2009 National Champion Michael Landers on the Kelloggs cereal box in 2012. Here's another picture of the Kelloggs boxes on the shelf.

Fashion and Table Tennis

Here are two pictures (click to see second one), in honor of World Table Tennis Day. I'm oblivious to fashion, but these pictures do have a bit of . . . something?

Your Doorway . . . to Your Table Tennis Future?

Here's the artwork from Mike Mezyan!

Hyperbolic Pong

Here's the picture! (Or is it Pringles TT, as Sean O'Neill messaged?)

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